


Dr Kim’s Institution for the Supernaturally Afflicted

by adastreia_writes



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Choi San is Whipped, Crushes, Demon Choi San, First Meetings, Fluff, Gen, Halloween, Haunted Houses, Hurt/Comfort, Jung Wooyoung is Whipped, M/M, Meet-Cute, Minor Injuries, but not really, can i even tag it that, its just knee scrapes, still just in case, there is very mild description of blood and injuries but very halloween-typical i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27198197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adastreia_writes/pseuds/adastreia_writes
Summary: Wooyoung does not scare easily, thank you very much. He is a man made of stone, with the courage of a lion, undeterred by the horrors of the world, and currently trying to tame a very much drumming heart that is attempting to escape his ribcage at every turn of Dr Kim’s Institution for the Supernaturally Afflicted. But at least there's a cute demon lurking around here somewhere.
Relationships: Choi Jongho & Jung Wooyoung, Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Jung Wooyoung & Kang Yeosang, Kim Hongjoong & Park Seonghwa
Comments: 7
Kudos: 98
Collections: All Hallows ATEEZ Exchange





	Dr Kim’s Institution for the Supernaturally Afflicted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thatstarlitsky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatstarlitsky/gifts).



Wooyoung does not scare easily, thank you very much. He is a man made of stone, with the courage of a lion, undeterred by the horrors of the world, and currently trying to tame a very much drumming heart that is attempting to escape his ribcage at every turn of  _ Dr Kim’s Institution for the Supernaturally Afflicted. _

“If we die here,” he hisses at Yeosang as he clutches his sleeve lightly, under the pretense of not losing him in the darkness of the corridor, “I’m gonna kill you.”

While Wooyoung is doing a very poor impersonation of a not scared person, Yeosang walks next to him, doing a very poor impersonation of a person not about to laugh in his friend’s face. It was his idea to go out here a few days ago, and Wooyoung had agreed, thinking it would be like any other Halloween haunted houses they’d been to so far, none of which were actually particularly scary. The worst one had only managed to startle him slightly when an actor playing a banshee suddenly screamed in his ear out of nowhere. 

This one did a number on him though, when the good doctor led them in a room painted in red, the floor sticky and the ceiling decorated with hanging entrails and limbs, and before they could do anything, the zombie sitting in the middle of the room lunged at them with an inhuman screech. She had gotten a few inches away from Wooyoung when she was yanked back forcefully by rattling chains attached to the wall. She kept kicking and screaming, grunting as she tried to get to them, the doctor’s voice coldly explaining her condition. Blood seemed to drip from her mouth with every violent snarl. After that, Wooyoung stuck to Yeosang a bit.

Yeosang, who, after having inflicted such mental labor on him, now lets out a soft scoff, nudging Wooyoung in the ribs. 

“We won’t die, Woo,” he says, humor coloring his voice. He wouldn’t admit it, but Yeosang’s amusement makes Wooyoung’s heart stop galloping and start beating at a steady pace instead. 

“The restrained zombies beg to differ,” he grumbles. From his other side, Jongho tsks and wacks the back of Wooyoung’s head. 

“Don’t worry, you big baby, I’ll protect you. Now stop talking,” he whispers and tilts his head pointedly toward the actor walking slowly in front of them. Wooyoung makes a noise of protest, rubbing his head, the suspense that spooked him now dampened by his friends’ lack of any sort of fear. He doesn’t reply though, turning instead his attention back to their tour guide. 

The guide is a handsome man, clad in white doctor’s robes, and powdered with equally white makeup, looking almost dead, devoid of any color save for the shocking navy blue of his tousled hair. He had introduced himself as Dr. Kim at the entrance of the haunted house, before starting their tour through the various rooms of his estate, showing off his patients.

“Apologies for the aggression of patient Ah,” he says, voice clear and eerily calm, “But the tests we perform here are volatile, and so are our subjects.” 

He takes a sharp turn down a different corridor, his hands clasped behind his back, and Wooyoung thinks it looks more like he is gliding and less like he is walking. Paired with the dark corridor, illuminated only by a rainbow of dim, red, blue and purple lights, makes it all the more sinister. 

“If you will follow me, I would like to show you a recent specimen we have collected,” Dr. Kim says and stops before a door, pausing before opening it. “A reminder that keeping at least 3 feet distance between yourselves and the specimens is advised. We are not accountable for any… accidents that may occur otherwise.” 

The moment Dr. Kim opens the door, Wooyoung feels someone push him forward and he gasps, stumbling into the room. He looks behind him and sees Yeosang trying to hide a smile before following after him. Wooyoung, being a proper friend, promptly shoves him in front of him like a human shield, anxiety ramping up his blood again.

The room is drowning in a deep darkness, broken by fractions of blue light. He can smell something pungent, almost like it’s rotten, and he hears the grunts before he sees their source. He can feel his heart flutter again, his stomach empty with the buildup of anticipation. He jumps slightly when the relative silence is broken by the loud creak of the door before Dr. Kim slams it shut. He takes careful, slow steps forward, unblinking, and as he does, the grunts get louder and begin to turn deeper, as if ripped from the throat. Wooyoung finally locates their source, a slumped silhouette in the middle of the room, the chains keeping it bound glinting blue. Dr. Kim finally stops a couple of feet away from it and turns back towards them. Yeosang grasps Wooyoung’s sleeve a little tightly, and Jongho inches a bit closer.  _ Hypocrites, _ Wooyoung thinks. 

“Patient Park here was found a couple of weeks ago. He appears to have suffered an attack by a supernatural source of some sort, one that makes it so that he has grown unstable from never-healing wounds,” Dr. Kim says and gestures to the slumped person, and the blue light instantly brightens. 

It reveals the patient’s form, exposes the gashes running from one cheek to the other, bloody and harsh, as well as the ones adorning his eyes- or at least one of them, since the other is covered by sleek black hair. The eye Wooyoung can see is wide open and very much white. Patient Park’s grunts now look like the snarls of a rabid animal, teeth bared, movements jerky. 

“We are not sure what attacked him, but our tests should eventually reveal it. We cannot extract any samples without inflicting more injuries on him, but he is too far gone anyway, lost to this already. We cannot hope to cure him. It is… the novelty of his case that makes us proud to host him in our institution. I trust you will find a vested interest in him and the information he can provide.” Dr. Kim smiles, and it almost unsettles Wooyoung more than Patient Park’s cut up smile. 

The doctor extends a hand towards the door. “Now, shall we?” 

They all take one last look at Patient Park, and Jongho turns to open the door. It remains lodged in place. Wooyoung frowns. Is this part of the haunted house, meant as a jumpscare? Lock them in, and set the man driven mad by pain free, let him hunt them? 

Jongho tries again, giving the doorknob a firm shake. It stays shut. He turns back to the rest of them and says: “I can’t open it.” 

Which is ironic, because Wooyoung knows Jongho can open pretty much anything. 

As he turns to the doctor and the patient, half expecting one of them to lunge at them, he sees Dr. Kim frowning. “Are you sure?” he says, with a little more emotion than he put in his voice during their tour. Jongho nods, and Wooyoung can’t take it. He shoves past Jongho and puts all his strength in pushing the doorknob down. The door opens easily, and Wooyoung almost falls from the unnecessary force. 

He turns to glare at Jongho. “You’re horrible.” 

He expects a laugh or something of the sort, but Jongho only offers a wide eyed look. “I didn’t fake it,” he says as he steps out into the corridor hesitantly, looking both ways. It doesn’t help much, as the corridor seems to have gotten even darker since they stepped away from it. 

Great. 

Dr. Kim ushers them all out in the darkness, and goes to shut the door. 

“Doctor… Kim… you… will pay,” Wooyoung hears a raspy voice say, followed by a hacking cough. The doctor has frozen, with a slightly alarmed look on his face, and it is then that Wooyoung realizes the person who said that was Patient Park, who, despite coughing violently, has his eyes fixed right on Dr. Kim. His heart jumps, and he only unfreezes from his spot when the doctor springs to action and shuts the door forcefully, sending a loud bang reverberating through the halls. 

The colored lights shut off as well, and the four of them are plunged in black. Wooyoung is pretty sure both Jongho and Yeosang jumped next to him. 

“Wooyoung?” he hears from his left, Yeosang’s voice. He goes to reply but instead someone grips his forearm and he yelps.

“It’s me, it’s me,” Jongho whispers in his ear and he almost punches him out of instinct. Wooyoung fumbles forward, trying to find Yeosang with his hands, but before he can do so, the red lights hum back to power and bathe the floor in crimson. Under what little light there is, Wooyoung’s eyes adjust and he sees Yeosang behind him, a few feet from the doctor, giving him and Jongho a bewildered look. 

“Why, hello Dr. Kim,” a mellow voice rings from their right, and when Wooyoung turns, he sees a man, sitting cross-legged on the floor. He’s resting his head on his knuckles, sporting an amused smile that reeks of arrogance. His eyes are an inhuman ice blue, piercing them with every glance, although they mostly remain focused on the doctor. Belatedly, Wooyoung notices that his hands are dyed blood red, leaving red marks on his face. He shudders at the image, and he is not the only one. 

Dr. Kim has frozen, his lips parted slightly in shock, but otherwise maintaining his composure. In moments, any imperfections in his ironclad composure are straightened out, and he clasps his hands in front of him. 

“You’re not meant to be out.” 

The man chuckles, and under the red lights, his teeth look as if dripping with blood.    
  


“I felt like taking a walk. See what the establishment has to offer. I so seldom get to leave its bowels, as you know.” He now turns his attention from the doctor to the three of them, his eyes like a hawk’s, zeroing in on its prey. Wooyoung gulps. The man grins dangerously. “It seems it is my lucky day. Three whole meals. Oh, Kim, you really shouldn’t have.” 

The man starts to unfold from his seat, but he doesn’t get up. His eyes roll back into his skull as he get on all fours, every move as jagged as broken glass. Everything about him that spoke elegance vanishes, replaced by violent spasm and vibrations rocking his body. 

Wooyoung takes a step back, and the lights flicker. The man was close to him, and he is ridiculously fast despite the jerky movements, and the fact that he is crawling towards them without any special effects to assist him. 

The doctor turns to them, all attempts at maintaining a cold mask gone, his face twisted with fear, mangled by the flashing lights, and he shouts: “Run! Run now!” 

The moment he shouts, the man on the ground flings himself towards them as they start to run, but Wooyoung has only managed to turn on his heels when one of said heels gets locked in the man’s grip.

Wooyoung isn’t proud of it. But he screeched like a little girl. 

The grip wasn’t actually that tight, but in his haste to shake the man off, he tripped over his own feet, earning himself another yelp as he fell harshly on the floor, landing on his knees. 

Rougher than it seemed, he felt the floor skin his unprotected knees, left bare through the rips in his jeans. Really wrong day to wear those, it seemed. His palms also burned, undoubtedly scraped as well from breaking his fall. He winced at the sharp pain and brought a tentative hand on his knees. He felt the wetness of the blood rather than actually seeing it. Damn it. 

“Woo?” he hears Jongho’s panicked call from further down the corridor. 

“I scraped my knees,” he calls back with a soft hiss as he tries to get up. His knees are not cooperating. “Pretty badly,” he murmurs bitterly. 

The doctor comes closer to him, the act of horror gone, and he puts a hand on his back. 

“You okay to walk?” he asks gently. Wooyoung tries to take a step, but it stings too much to continue to do this until the end of the house, which was probably just beginning. 

Yeosang and Jongho come back, fear gone, replaced with worry. 

“Hey, do you want to leave?” Jongho asks.

“Yeah, we can go get you patched up and get you home.” 

The man comes closer too now, and it surprises Wooyoung how relaxed his movements are now. His gaze is softer now too, despite the eye contacts making it look unnatural. 

“We have a first aid kit. I can clean it up for you if you want,” he offers. 

Wooyoung pauses to think. Yeosang was excited to come to this particular haunted house because he kept missing it the past years when it did its Halloween special. He doesn’t want to ruin that, and Jongho is still okay to go with him. Besides, now that he doesn’t look possessed by a demon, the man looks cute. 

“I can go get it cleaned up and wait for you guys to finish your round.” He turns to the doctor, who he knows is in charge, “Is that possible?” 

Dr. Kim nods. “Of course, of course. San, take him with you. I’ll go tell Seonghwa to take your place.” He then turns his attention to Wooyoung’s friends with a sorry smile. “I’m sorry about this. Should we go on?” 

Yeosang and Jongho share a look before looking at Wooyoung. “You’re sure you’re okay?” Jongho asks. Wooyoung nods and offers a smile that he hopes didn’t turn into a grimace when he shifted his knee the wrong way. 

With his friends on their way to meet more ghouls and terrors, Wooyoung is left with the surprisingly cute demon. The surprisingly cute demon that is currently placing a hand on the small of his back, pushing him gently towards the exit. 

“Right this way,” he says and offers a nervous smile. He’s got dimples. That’s cute. Wooyoung smiles back and tries to not short circuit. 

“So, San, was it?” he asks, his heart rate spiking up again despite the distinct lack of scary things in the corridor. The red nights are now stable and without his creepy look, the man isn’t that intimidating. But his dimples are. 

“Yep! And you are?” 

“Wooyoung.” 

“Wooyoung,” San says, drawing out the vowels, testing it out. Wooyoung likes the way it sounds like that, and he can’t help but find the welcoming smile on San’s face endearing. It’s infectious. He finds he has a smile etched on his face, though subtler. 

“It’s a nice name,” San continues, avoiding his eyes, but that’s all he says as they walk, slowly for Wooyoung. An awkward silences stretches on until San breaks it again. He twists his body emphatically toward Wooyoung, taking his hand off his back and bringing it together with his other one. 

“Look, I’m sorry about what happened. We’ve been discussing stopping that grab because it can be dangerous but it’s also really effective with scaring people, and I don’t hold anyone tightly so they don’t trip because of me but accidents can still happen it seems.” 

Wooyoung chuckles at the nervousness in his voice and waves his hand dismissively. 

“It’s okay, accidents happen. I’m just sad for my jeans,” he says, and it just dawns on him that his jeans will be ruined by the blood. He lets out a little groan at the thought, and his next step is a bit too hard on his knee. He hisses, and San’s hands snap back to his back and forearm, supporting him. 

“You don’t make a very convincing argument, Wooyoung,” he says with a laugh. He nods his head towards a door next to them. It says ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’. “Let’s patch you up now.” 

San opens the light in the room and shuts the door, pushing Wooyoung onto a stool that he dug out of the corner. It’s way brighter than the corridor and it takes a minute to adjust as San shuffles through piles of props in search of the first aid kit. 

Under bright light, Wooyoung can make San’s figure out better; he’s slender but fit, and his hair has nice red streaks. When he finds the kit and turns back toward Wooyoung, he notices details, like how straight his teeth are when his smiles, and the moles that dot his skin like constellations. His lips look soft, despite the deep maroon lipstick he wears. 

“Wooyoung?”

His attention snaps back. 

“Mm?” 

“I said give me your knee.”

Oh. He’s holding disinfectant and a towel. Scraped knees. “Right.”

He extends one of his legs towards San and tries not to wince when it stings at the change of posture. San crouches down in front of it and dabs the towel with some of the disinfectant. 

“I’m going to level with you,” he tells Wooyoung with an expression alike to that of the doctor, grim and calm, “This will hurt like a bitch.” 

True to his word, as he starts patting the wound with the towel, the pain flairs viciously and Wooyoung can’t hold in a few gasps and a lot of hisses of pain. 

“Almost there,” San mutters reassuringly, concentrated on wiping away the blood with swift movements. Even through the pain, Wooyoung can’t help but find his focused face adorable, eyebrows all scrunched up and jaw set. 

As he is cleaning the second knee, San takes a moment to glance up at Wooyoung. When their eyes meet, they both smile instinctively, before San looks back to the damaged skin. 

“This is a pretty good haunted house,” Wooyoung says, and smacks himself mentally. Amazing small talk starter, really. The awkwardness he feels is stifling. 

“You think?” says San and puts in a more forceful dab of the towel. Wooyoung hisses again and nods. A soft smile makes its way to San’s lips. “Good. Hongjoong and Seonghwa really worked hard on it this year.” 

Wooyoung assumed Hongjoong had been the actor that played the doctor. 

“Yeah, we’ve been to some this year cause my friend, Yeosang, loves them. I tag along usually but most of them are pretty mild.”

San only hums in response. 

“You were pretty good at your part. You scared me the most,” says Wooyoung and tilts his head, trying to catch San’s eyes. He succeeds, and when San looks up at him as well, he thinks he detects a slight blush.

“Thank you. I try. Hongjoong hired me because I can do these tremors, he says they’re disturbing.”

He looks happy to be talking about his job, a twinkly of excitement glimmering in his eyes. Wooyoung thinks he’d easily listen to him talk about it for an hour more, just to admire that look, hopefully without the contacts too. 

“They were disturbing alright- ouch!” San does a particularly harsh swipe, cutting Wooyoung off, and he’s immediately thrown himself in apologies. 

“Oh God, I’m so sorry, okay, I’m done. I just need to wrap them up now, okay?”

He wraps the injuries in smooth movements, like he’s done this a bunch of times before, and Wooyoung wonders if he has, if those hands have tended many wounds before, his own or others’, and he wants to know this and more. 

San gets back up and stretches a bit, supplies still in hand. He puts a bandaid on each small cut on Wooyoung’s palms and looks at him brightly when he’s done. “There we go. All patched up. You’re free to go wait for your friends in the lounge area now.” 

He opens the door for him, and gestures for him to go out first. Wooyoung hesitates. He shuffles his feet, and plays with his fingers before he says: “Thank you. For the help.” 

“No problem. It was my fault anyway. Sorry about the jeans though.”

Wooyoung looks down and only now notices his jeans, brown with dried blood around the rips on the knees. He had been too distracted to notice that when San was cleaning the wounds up. He turns back towards a sheepish-looking San. 

“You can replace them,” he blurts out, and immediately feels his face burn up. “Uh, I mean. Maybe we could go for a coffee? And then go get those jeans replaced.” 

San looks at him, momentarily shocked, before he makes a swift recovery Wooyoung is envious of. His face is getting redder by the minute. His heart is pounding against his ribcage as much as when it did when San first showed up in the corridor with that eerie look of his. But San smiles brightly, his eyes turning to sweet crescents and his dimples gracing his cheeks, and the anxiety dissolves. 

“I’d like that. Pick a demon-possessed fellow up at the end of his shift on Friday, won’t you?” he says with an icey blue wink, “I get off at six.” 

“Six,” Wooyoung says breathlessly, “I can do that.”

  
That Friday, on six two exactly, Wooyoung is back at  _ Dr Kim’s Institution for the Supernaturally Afflicted _ , picking up a demon with dimples and soft lips and constellations on his skin. He learns San’s eyes are the deepest earthly brown, and that his hands have cared for himself a lot after karate matches. And he can’t wait to learn more.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Halloween! I hope you liked it! I based it on my college's haunted house but that was a year ago so it may not have been as effective lol. I really liked writing San here. Wooyoung hisses a lot and he's not even a vampire smh
> 
> As always, kudos and comments appreciated!!


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